By Christopher Rowland | The Washington Post
Quest Diagnostics, the medical testing company, said a data breach has affected about 11.9 million patients, after an “unauthorized user” gained access to financial data, Social Security numbers, and medical data, but not laboratory test results.
A collections agency called American Medical Collection Agency notified Quest about a potential intrusion on May 14 and then reported on the scope of the breach on Friday.
AMCA provides services to Optum360, a Quest billing contractor. Quest said it does not have details about which patients were affected and what data was stolen.
Quest “has not been able to verify the accuracy of the information received from AMCA,” Quest said in a statement posted on its website Monday. Quest has suspended collections requests through the agency, it said.
“Quest is taking this matter very seriously and is committed to the privacy and security of our patients’ personal information,” the company said. It indicated that plans are in the works to begin notifying individual patients but did not give a timeline.
